Sooo… last night the 2nd round of JYJ ticket sales happened. Just like last Wednesday, my friend and I headed to the local PC 방 (faster internet than the crappy connections we get in our building), hoping this time we would be successful, since last week’s venture left us empty handed. I logged in to my Interpark account, and at 8:00 pm on the dot, I tried to pull tickets. SUCCESS! I got 3 tickets in the VIP section within the red oval:

JYJ concert seating map – Seoul August 2014

Yes! Seats in the area that is encircled by part of the stage! RIGHT NEAR THE ROTATING PLATFORM WHERE THEY WILL PROBABLY SING IN HEAVEN AND DO THAT THING WHERE THEY TURN TOWARD EACH OTHER AND FEED OFF OF EACH OTHER’S ENERGY AND CREATE THIS AMAZING SYNERGY THAT I WOULD SERIOUSLY CONSIDER GIVING A KIDNEY OR PART OF MY LIVER TO SEE UP CLOSE! Yes, those seats!

Life could not possibly get better! Those seats were literally a dream come true for me and I had them in my hot little virtual hands!

I proceeded through the ticket purchase process – something I’ve done at least a dozen times by now, so I can do it quite easily, even in Korean – and got all the way to the screen where you select the method of payment, but for some reason, the list of bank cards wasn’t coming up, and where the ‘Next’ button usually is, it said 잠시만 기다려주세요, so I waited for a bit. But I also didn’t want to wait too long and lose my tickets, and there was that little ! in the status bar at the bottom of the window that indicated an error, so I had my friend on the computer next to me try to grab a single ticket elsewhere and see what happens if you hit the ‘previous screen’ button. She did and the tickets were still intact, so I decided to back one step and then try again, hoping that when I got to the payment screen, my tickets would still be there, and they were! I was successful! Yay!

It allowed me to select the method of payment and move forward one step. Then… when it came time to input my card details, there was a notation of an Active X that needed to be allowed. So I allowed it, because otherwise I couldn’t proceed. AND THE DAMN PAGE REFRESHED BACK TO THE BEGINNING AND RELEASED MY TICKETS!!!!!!! And try as I might, I never got them back.

So, now, I’m stuck sitting in the seats within the navy triangle on the map above. It’s a far cry from what I had been in reach of just moments before. Now, unless you’re a huge, devoted fan of something, the way I am of JYJ, you might not understand how I feel, but let me tell you that my heart literally hurts and tears well up in my eyes when I think of it. So I am doing my best to try not to think of it, and just focus on the fact that we got tickets, which is much better than our attempt last week, and that I will finally, after years of waiting, get to see JYJ together. Live. In concert. Making magic like only they can.

But I needed to get it all out of my system in order to move on, hence the post.

I’ve also decided that I’m going to try to get a ticket for their Hong Kong concert the following week and change my flight for my trip to Japan to accommodate a side trip to Hong Kong… They have general admission floor tickets, and that’s what I’m aiming for. Wish me luck! Maybe third time’s a charm?

Oh, and just in case you want to see what I mean about JYJ’s synergy as they perform In Heaven, you can watch a fancam here. It’s a great performance, and the synergy part really kicks into high gear around the 3:37 mark.

I’m a bit of a walking contradiction. I love to buy things, yet I absolutely abhor shopping malls. I’m not sure when it happened, because I was a total mall rat just like every other suburban teen in the GTA, but somehow, somewhere along the way, I began to hate malls with a passion. I also don’t particularly like the hassle of shopping for clothing, except for shoes, but even then, I prefer to go to shoe stores that are outside of malls so that I don’t have to experience the torture of being inside one. Same thing with anything else I need/want to buy. If I can get it somewhere else, I’m totally there.

It is for this exact reason that the ability to shop online is both a godsend and pure, unadulterated evil for me. You see, I really, really like to buy things, and when you partner that up with my fangirlish tendencies, havoc will ensue. Take this weekend, for example: I purchased 4, yes, 4 JYJ CDs; a JYJ cell phone charm; 2 JYJ pillow cases; a JYJ wall calendar; and a new case (miraculously not JYJ) for my iPhone. Did I need all that stuff? Well, I did need the case, as mine has broken, and a new case does dictate the need for a new cell phone charm. But the CDs? Maaaaybe kind of, sort of, but, not really. I already have most of the songs on the CDs I bought, but the reason I say ‘sort of’ is that I’m a firm believer in supporting the artists I love by buying their products and going to their concerts. So even if I download something for free, eventually I will buy it, or buy enough of their other products to restore my musical karmic balance. Also, the CDs come with posters and photo books, so, there’s another reason to buy them. But again, not enough to dictate need, really.

The calendar was completely frivolous, since I already have two calendars at home – one of them from another fandom: Bleach – yet I absolutely had to have the JYJ one. (Really, I was thiiiiiis close to buying it back in November, but I changed my mind, so really, all I’m doing is changing my mind back again.) And let’s not even discuss the pillow cases, because frivolous is not a frivolous enough word to describe that particular purchase. But OMG they’re so adorable! Ahem. Yeah. Frivolous to the Nth degree.

Anyway, this is just a long-winded way for me to document the fact that I really need to stay away from eBay. And YesAsia.com, and J-list, and all the other e-commerce sites that suck me in so efficiently. Truly I do, because I’m supposed to be saving money for Japan, not buying things that I can probably get cheaper there anyway!

On the up side, I have been a good girl when it comes to concerts. I’ve made a rule that I’m not allowed to buy concert tickets for any band/artist I’ve seen before, though what I’m actually aiming for is to spend no money on any band unless JYJ return to North America like the rumours say they will. Now that I’ve written that down, I think it means I’m obligated to adhere to it…